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21st Century Leadership Discussion Days on Facebook

29. Jun 2013

World Scouting’s Priority Area Working Group for 2011-2014 on “21st Century Leadership” launched a Discussion Paper recently on leadership development in Scouting. This area of work largely focuses on the Youth Programme aspects of leadership development for young Scouts as against the training of adult Scout Leaders, which is another important aspect of Scouting. The Working Group on “21st Century Leadership” has launched a campaign called Discussion Days around 6 key areas from the Discussion Paper. The Discussion Days are currently ongoing on their Facebook Page ( www.facebook.com/21stcl) from 27 June and will continue up to 2 July 2013 inviting everyone to contribute to this key area of World Scouting’s work for this triennium.

Based on Resolutions from the 39th World Scout Conference in Brazil (2011), “21st Century Leadership” was selected as one of the four priorities by the World Scout Committee for the current triennium. The other areas of priority for World Scouting currently are “Youth For Change”, “Our Strategic Path” and “Global Support”.

The Discussion Paper – which forms the basis for the Discussion Days on Facebook – was prepared by the Working Group and circulated to all National Scout Organizations earlier this month. The Paper attempts to clarify how everyone in Scouting understands leadership in order to find an approach that represents a shared view from the Scout Movement. It has been produced in order to facilitate discussion on the nature and role of leadership development in the Scout Youth Programme. The Working Group has synthesised the Discussion Paper through literary studies and consultation with hundreds of Scouts at various Regional events around the world since the Brazil Conference.

The Paper is one of the several outputs from the on-going work of “21st Century Leadership”. Through the discussions around the Paper, the Working Group is inviting best practices and examples from National Scout Organizations that focus on components of Youth Programme contributing to leadership development of Scouts. The Group also plans to produce several assessment tools for leadership development aspects of Youth Programme. National Scout Organizations will be offered training and support to use the assessment tools. In the process, a pool of trained consultants will be created with sufficient background and knowledge on Scouting’s Youth Programme contributing to leadership development, which is engrained in the Purpose and Principles of the Scout Movement.

Discussion Days on “21st Century Leadership” will focus on the following six areas and discussions have been running from 27 June and will conclude on 2 July 2013:
1. Active role in society
2. Learning by doing
3. Inclusive values
4. Collaboration
5. Commitment, integrity and trust
6. Relevant to today's young people